Bravery award PC crashed car after drinking

An "outstanding" police officer with a decoration for bravery has lost his job after admitting drink-driving twice in one day after a party held to mark his promotion to the helicopter squad.

PC Ian Fielding crashed his car down an embankment before going back to a police base and picking up a marked police vehicle, intending to use it to drag his own car out of the ditch, Shrewsbury magistrates heard. When he spotted colleagues at the crash scene, he drove off with them in pursuit before giving himself up.

Fielding, 44, pleaded guilty to careless driving, two counts of driving with excess alcohol, and taking a vehicle without consent. He was sentenced to 200 hours' community work and banned from driving for two and a half years. He will automatically be dismissed from West Mercia police.

Andrew Burke, prosecuting, said Fielding 's leaving party had been at West Mercia police's training headquarters in Hindlip, Worcestershire, in January. He arranged to sleep there but after the party, and a visit to a pub in Worcester, he decided he wanted to drive back to his home in Bridgnorth to be with his wife.

Mr Burke said: "He had a blood reading of 79mg of alcohol, more than twice the drink-drive limit." Twenty-eight references were presented to the court from colleagues and friends of Fielding.

Fielding, a married father of two, has appeared on BBC's Crimewatch and the Richard and Judy show to launch police appeals. He won a bravery award for disarming a gunman who in 2003 led him on a high-speed car chase through Worcester and terrorised Christmas shoppers when he produced a gun in a pedestrian area.